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One of the sticking points of the kitchen at the Lodge (among several hundred others) has been whether or not to wrap the supporting posts with wood or leave them covered in sheet rock. I thought covering the posts in wood and staining them to match the beams and other posts in the [...] Keep Reading

For the bathrooms at the Lodge, I didn’t want a typical drawer-and-door bathroom vanity. Instead, I was shooting for the farm table look, with open shelves and legs. I just like the simplicity of that kind of design, but I also know myself well enough to know that bad things happen [...] Keep Reading

The concrete countertop is in, and it was a really fun process to watch. There was so much labor and preparation involved, which is never my strong suit…but I love watching other people do their work well. What really amazed me was that after all of the detailed prep work and [...] Keep Reading

First, I need to get something off my chest. The fact that I’ve been able to bounce things off of you for the past several months, and ESPECIALLY for the past two weeks, is something for which I’ll be forever grateful. Honestly—think about it. Being able to weigh many [...] Keep Reading

The cabinets finally arrived for the new laundry room, which means we can install the new washer-dryer tomorrow, which means when people visit the lodge and stay for a few days, we can wash their sheets and towels after they leave, which means when the next batch of people arrive, they [...] Keep Reading

Things are actually happening at the Lodge: the concrete countertops are getting started today, the lights are going on the ceiling, and the painters are getting ready to put on another coat of paint—a slightly lighter version of the first coat—and Jerry, our contractor, is [...] Keep Reading

I’ve decided on the countertop materials for the Lodge kitchen, thanks in no small part to your thoughts, suggestions, and in some cases, warnings in our countertop discussion here last week. Considering everything from slate to Silestone, granite to galvanized steel, I finally [...] Keep Reading

The kitchen at The Lodge has an irregularly-shaped island, and Monday morning the concrete guys are showing up to pour on the countertop. I’ve always, always been in love with the look of plain concrete. I’m not sure why…it’s so industrial, yet so elemental at the [...] Keep Reading

I can’t begin to express how much I DO NOT enjoy the paint selection process. It’s just not in my makeup to obsess over color schemes and paint techniques, and that I’m being forced right now to make permanent decisions relating to the color of the walls in the Lodge is [...] Keep Reading

There are people in this world who take great pleasure in pondering and selecting just the right paint color. Who visit busy home improvement stores for the sole purpose of browsing the paint aisle. Who have shoeboxes full of hundreds of paint chips they’ve collected in search for [...] Keep Reading

My mother-in-law and I were in the big city until ten last night, combing furniture stores for good deals, since the last thing I want to do right now is spend money on a bunch of furniture. But seeing that the average family member or guest generally appreciates something to sit on when [...] Keep Reading

The alternate title for this update is “The Hood Comes Full Circle.” The ventilation hood in the kitchen has been a sticking point ever since Marlboro Man’s mom and I started planning the kitchen ourselves many, many months ago. Neither of us was particularly drawn to the [...] Keep Reading

Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to another edition of “The Lodge Will Be Finished By Christmas!” I tell you, if sheer will and determination were responsible for the Lodge getting done, it’d be all ready tomorrow morning. I’m a woman with a mission, I tell you. And [...] Keep Reading

I’ve started dating my Lodge update posts in an effort to discipline myself to chronicle every single day between now and Christmas, when THE LODGE WILL BE FINISHED. I mentioned that, right? That the Lodge will be finished by Christmas? Isn’t it wonderful news! It’ll be [...] Keep Reading

…Is in full swing around here. When we started The Lodge last February, Marlboro Man and I naively thought we’d have it all done ’round the end of July. (Pardon me while I step away from the keyboard and have a laughing fit.) Then, once we dug in and got started and [...] Keep Reading

I haven’t used an architect or a designer or a decorator for the Lodge project, because that just isn’t how I roll. I’d much rather just do it myself and make mistakes than pay someone a lot of money to turn my house into their idea of what it should look like. Healthy [...] Keep Reading

One of the best things about scrapping your plans for big, luxurious, factory cabinets in favor of a local mom and pop cabinet shop is that mom and pop actually come finish the cabinets on site, rather than put them through an 89-step factory finishing process that involves rubbing, [...] Keep Reading

My mother-in-law has continued wearing the hardhat in her role as Supervisor at The Lodge, and in a way it’s nice to get all the cooks out of the kitchen. I’ve been enjoying the past two weeks—both following along on the before, during, and after of the Dominican Republic [...] Keep Reading

I spent all last week glued to my computer in my free time, reading updates and emails from Marlboro Man and the girls while they were in the Dominican Republic. The rest of my free time was spent looking after my two very “spirited” (euphemism for spastic) boys, who do [...] Keep Reading

Even though The Lodge and all its home improvement chaos technically belongs to Marlboro Man and me, I commandeered my mother-in-law very early in the process and informed her that she was not allowed to have a life for the next six months because I’m not making one decision without [...] Keep Reading